UPDATE 3-20-21 Input, opinions, tips for cabbing

[NevadaBill]

Thank you both. That is interesting to note, and written in a fashion that I can understand.

On a side I had a problem with my very first tumble of finished cabs. I realize that this was a big topic earlier in this thread, and probably could have warranted a thread of its own.

I never really felt that the idea of tumbling cabs (in a vibratory tumbler) would cause issues. But on some of my first cabs, I tossed them in to some AO Polish stage rocks, which were a full load of hard, round, 7+ hardness stones, and plenty of ceramic media (7). But it was.



Now, this was just a few different jasper and agate end pieces or little trim saw left overs that I thought I would shape in to something. This one is freehand, and has its own little flaws, imperfections, and was not a perfect cab to begin with.

But I am sure that the bottom was completely flat. I have tried to photograph this the best I could, so it would show that the saw had sliced the little slab piece, and that I had not done anything to grind down or polish the back. I remember it being a complete, flat, oval.

Now there is a chip that fell off. The arrows point to the spot that is missing. It isn't much, but it's enough to mess up a wire wrap probably.

Anyway, just sharing. I know they have polish and buffing wheels on cabbing machines. I think now I know why. I would be kind of upset if this was my prized, rare material, special present I was working on for somebody.

It won't stop me from tumbling finished cabs just yet. I have a lot of test cabs I am making now and this is the time to break stuff!

[rockjunquie]

That, my friend, was a hidden fracture. I am always secretly glad when one gives way when I am cabbing. And, they do. It's better then than after it went into a piece of jewelry or as gift. If you like the stone enough, you can always reshape it.

[NevadaBill]

OK, this post needs a theme song:



Relief Cut: When I first cut (template) shapes out of slabs, I lost a few potentially nice cabs to the saw. Does everyone use a relief cut when taking away the material around the shapes that you want to cut out?

I lost a few nice ones today. Brechiated Lavic is not nice to me. There always seems to be a crack lurking when making the cut, and DOH!.. there goes 1/2 the shape I wanted to cut out. My thulite is also behaving badly.

Idea! Cabbing Forum Support Group. REally. Like a Dear Abby column. There is so much that I've had go wrong on my way from getting cute little shaped cabs out of a chunk of rock!

I swear that I already have a half dozen stories of cab failure in my learning period alone.

It's all over, but the crying ...




[edit]  And for those wondering, Yes, I have played way too much FO4  

[stardiamond]

A lot of the cabs I cut have scenes and I don't worry about wasting material to make cutting the shapes easier. When a slab has a lot of usable scenes, like Morgan Hill, I try not to waste material. When working around material with fractures, I will make cuts to eliminate fractures to make sure they don't spread into the scenes.

[rockjunquie]

NevadaBill With slabs that tend to be fracture prone, you can drop the slab and cab what doesn't break ie- the pieces. Saves a lot of heartache. I like to hold it about 10-12 inches above the table and let it drop flat onto the table. I hear lots of people will take the drastic measure of dropping waist high onto the concrete garage floor. I won't go THAT far. But, when something looks like it might not survive the saw, I drop it and freeform and/or mark out and cut the pieces. Also, you'll develop a better eye for where your problems will be and mark out your cabs accordingly. I like to mark close to fracture lines- saves me a cut. I start to saw and it breaks. Problem solved- I get my cut, it gets to break. LOL! Of course, you just need to get a little more experience, but you'll learn to "read" the slab, too.

As far as relief cuts. I'm not sure exactly what you mean, someone else may chime in about that but, I do make cuts from opposite sides/ends and let them break apart when they close to meeting.

[stardiamond]

I believe a relief cut is one that is made to not stress the cuts around the preform. The saw blade puts stress on a slab and relief cuts might help protect sensitive areas like healed fractures and points.

Another way to determine how healed a fracture is when the results of visual inspection are uncertain, is to try snap the slab with my fingers.
The objective is not to fracture the slab but see if it will hold up to some stress. Usually when I think it will fracture it will.

[rockjunquie]

This might interest some of you

www.gemsociety.org/article/advanced-cutting-techniques-cabochons/

[jasperfanatic]

I might be the new cabber that inspired this thread   And while still a newbie having only been doing this 10 months, I've learned a ton, much thanks to members here.  A few things I'll add to this that helped me:

*  Whether you intend to sell your stones or not, find a few experienced jewelers (different styles) whose pieces you admire, and see if you can send them stones and get their critique.  While it seems some "rules" are mere guidelines, I've learned that there are some things that are important in a cabochon - otherwise it's just a polished rock.  The girdle angle example in the first post of this thread is a good example of that.

*Make a piece of jewelry yourself.  All of these tips are great, but a lot of it didn't fully sink in until I spent half of a Saturday doing a silversmithing stone setting workshop and use one of your own stones.  While it wasn't as fully hands on as I hoped, it connected a lot of dots for me and improved my cab making technique.  Mostly I just wanted to see if I would think silversmithing would be interesting to me and didn't anticipate how big of an impact it would have on how I make cabs.

Thanks to rockjunquie and Emory Coons for their time and advice.

[NevadaBill]

I felt the same way, jasperfanatic.

This post came just at the time I acquired my first grinder. Lucky for us, I think.

I learned a lot from this post, and thank rockjunquie for posting it.

Now that I am more in to cabbing than ever, I look back on these posts and can see that there are some real 'gems' of advice burried with some of the replies here. Some I even reflect on regularly when I'm on the grinder.

This is a great effort. I believe that it belongs sticked so that all of the guests can see it easier.

Thanks Tela.

[rockjunquie]

Dec 23, 2019 12:07:47 GMT -5 NevadaBill said:

I felt the same way, jasperfanatic .

This post came just at the time I acquired my first grinder. Lucky for us, I think.

I learned a lot from this post, and thank rockjunquie for posting it.

Now that I am more in to cabbing than ever, I look back on these posts and can see that there are some real 'gems' of advice burried with some of the replies here. Some I even reflect on regularly when I'm on the grinder.

This is a great effort. I believe that it belongs sticked so that all of the guests can see it easier.

Thanks Tela.

It's already stickied.

I'm really glad to hear it has helped you. I hope it has helped others, too.

[NevadaBill]

Oh, definitely helped. Every time I put a stone to grinder, some comments pop to mind and practice if reinforced.

Do you know what is not a common practice for me any more? Dop Sticks. I only use them for template pre-forms, or perfect circle types now, I guess.

For freeforms, I was just used to picking up a stone from the pile, and start to form it on the grinder until I got a shape that I was happy with. Now I just do it for everything. All the way from 80 grit, to 1200 pre-polish.

On two occations, after 4-5 hours of grinding I have noticed that I have ground my hand down to draw blood. I just slap a bandage on and keep going.

I thought I was weird, until I ran across a video just a week or two ago, where the man doing to grinding talks about not using dop sticks, and how he grinds his hands down without knowing it also.

Anyone else on RTH weird like this? I know that some of us just use Foredom's or Dremil's. Maybe.

[stardiamond]

I do all preforming without a dop. The volume of work dictates the amount of damage to my fingers. Doming causes more damage so I generally dop with superglue. Sanding off the glue from the backs also causes abrasions on my fingers. I use a hybrid technique. I put the stone against the wheel with my fingers and hold the dop with the other hand to get better control and having the stone come off the wheel.

[NevadaBill]

All of that is great advice stardiamond. I often think of your work when doing freeforms. I have accidentally adopted most of the techniques which you have just described.

I also hold the stone when I have it on a dop stick for mostly work around the girdle, to get better control.

When I was new, I used to put a lot of weight in to having a proper set of templates around. Now, I hardly touch the templates.

It is probably only a phase though, as I believe that with finished cabs, most peoples eyes are more drawn to perfectly symmetrical shapes of circles and ovals and such.

[Fossilman]

Dec 25, 2019 12:38:45 GMT -5 NevadaBill said:

Oh, definitely helped. Every time I put a stone to grinder, some comments pop to mind and practice if reinforced.

Do you know what is not a common practice for me any more? Dop Sticks. I only use them for template pre-forms, or perfect circle types now, I guess.

For freeforms, I was just used to picking up a stone from the pile, and start to form it on the grinder until I got a shape that I was happy with. Now I just do it for everything. All the way from 80 grit, to 1200 pre-polish.

On two occations, after 4-5 hours of grinding I have noticed that I have ground my hand down to draw blood. I just slap a bandage on and keep going.

I thought I was weird, until I ran across a video just a week or two ago, where the man doing to grinding talks about not using dop sticks, and how he grinds his hands down without knowing it also.

Anyone else on RTH weird like this? I know that some of us just use Foredom's or Dremil's. Maybe.

I rarely use dop sticks.... Drives my Lapidary buddies crazy... Keeps my nails trimmed though (hahaha) and yes it does draw blood once in awhile...

[rockjunquie]

OK, guys- wanna hear something sad? I've had a few days of nicer weather where I could have cabbed, but I did a really nice manicure for the holidays and don't want to mess it up. LOL!!!! Terrible, I know. I use a dop, but I usually have my fingers close to the wheels. I still end up grinding some of them.

[miket]

Dec 31, 2019 13:50:58 GMT -5 rockjunquie said:

OK, guys- wanna hear something sad? I've had a few days of nicer weather where I could have cabbed, but I did a really nice manicure for the holidays and don't want to mess it up. LOL!!!! Terrible, I know. I use a dop, but I usually have my fingers close to the wheels. I still end up grinding some of them.

[RocksInNJ]

Dec 31, 2019 13:50:58 GMT -5 rockjunquie said:

OK, guys- wanna hear something sad? I've had a few days of nicer weather where I could have cabbed, but I did a really nice manicure for the holidays and don't want to mess it up. LOL!!!! Terrible, I know. I use a dop, but I usually have my fingers close to the wheels. I still end up grinding some of them.

I’m a guy and even I know that’s not how you polish your nails. 

[knave]

Well I’m not even cabbing yet, really. But I do have some questions. Right now I have the Lortone Combination saw with two drums on the right side. So I have an 80 grit diamond wheel, and then 3 expando belts. 400/800/1000. I’m realizing that 1000 not a fine enough grit to move on to polishing unless using a loto.
I’ve had some advice from members here to go ahead and get a 6 wheel. I have to say I never dreamed I would spend $500 on this hobby let alone whatever a cab king costs.... could I get some Nova tips for my Dremel? Seems it would be hard to keep everything even and smooth.
Thanks for any and all input.
Evan

Edit: corrected mistake

[gemfeller]

Going from 80 grit grinding to 400 sanding is far too big a jump. You say you have 4 expando belts but mention only 3. You might consider 100 grit and 220 grit expando belts before you get to 400. They're a lot cheaper than hard wheels if you're able to switch belts easily. A 1000 finish should polish easily if you carefully check for scratches between operations.

[knave]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!